Dairy Stars

Name:Delilah

Weight:?

Age:?

Delilah was due to calve in mid February. Yesterday in the barn. she unexpectedly gave birth to a live bull calf that was about the right size for his stage of gestation, but apparently breathing. At this stage, there is not sufficient surfactant to allow for the opening of the lung’s alveoli, thus, the calf is helpless to suffocate and die. He actually lived for an hour or two while Delilah licked him and bonded with him. She was a very good mother, comforting him as best she could with her cooing and grooming. She will enter into a new lactation now and join the milking herd in several days. I will be withholding her milk from the rest of the cows’ milk until it is cleared of any colostrum or dry-off residues. Delilah is eating very well and she appears healthy. She keeps calling out to her calf, still singing to him after he has passed.